There and Back Again: Afro-Eurasian Exchange in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Periods

This book evaluates the evidence for indirect connections between the Aegean and the Indus extending back to the third and fourth millennia BCE, particularly commodities such as tin and lapis lazuli, and discusses recently discovered objects, new methods of materials analysis techniques and topics, as well as iconographic investigation.

The earliest contacts between the Aegean and the Indus were once thought to begin in the sixth century BCE, and yet there is now growing evidence of much earlier, indirect connections that extend into the third and fourth millennia BCE. There and Back Again evaluates the evidence for such contacts, particularly commodities such as tin and lapis lazuli, and discusses recently discovered objects, new methods of materials analysis techniques and topics, as well as iconographic investigation. Such studies clearly indicate the presence of indirect, or ‘trickle down’ contacts, where Mesopotamia functions as an intermediary between Africa and Europe in the west and Asia. In such a system, objects, iconography, and culture accumulate material and social value as they were exchanged through Mesopotamia and the Near East, to the Aegean and beyond. From the Early through Late Bronze Age, the Indus (and more broadly South Asia) remained critical to western regions for valuable, indispensable commodities destined for elites from Mesopotamia and other regions to the west. The volume’s case studies are complex and multifaceted, including but not limited to linguistics, iconography, paleobotany, archaeology, ancient disease and medicine, as well as scientific, materials, and technological analysis. As such, this collection of 11 papers constitutes the first of a series that seek to address a lingering lacuna in prehistoric studies: multi-disciplinary case-studies of Afro-Eurasian exchange.

Foreword: Old Assumptions Die Hard - Shereen Ratnagar Introduction - Marie Nicole Pareja, Robert Arnott Chapter 1: Crossing Continents: between the Indus and the Aegean in prehistory - Robert Arnott Chapter 2: Indus-Aegean Interaction in the 3rd millennium BC - Geoffrey E. Ludvik, J. Mark Kenoyer Chapter 3: Junction Points: New Evidence for Long-Distance Trade between Minoan Crete and the East - Susan C. Ferrence, Alessandra Giumlia-Mair, Philip P. Betancourt, Metaxia Tsipopoulou Chapter 4: Fierce Femmes: On the Syncretic Nature of the Bronze Age Divine in Afro-Eurasia - Marie N. Pareja Chapter 5: The Iconography of Game Animals in Afro-Eurasia and Disease - Amanda N. Porter Chapter 6: The ancient views of India and Ethiopia as evidence for intercultural contacts between Bronze Age India and the Mediterranean - Asterios-Evangelos Kechagias Chapter 7: Humbaba the elephant? On eastern elements in the Standard Babylonian Gilgames epic - Sureshkumar Muthukumaran Chapter 8: Babylonia abroad in the Kassite period - Tim Clayden Chapter 9: Relations between the Indus and the Aegean in the Bronze Age: Assessing the limited linguistic evidence - Stephen P. B. Durnford,

Foreword: Old Assumptions Die Hard – Shereen Ratnagar

Introduction – Marie Nicole Pareja, Robert Arnott

Chapter 1: Crossing Continents: between the Indus and the Aegean in prehistory – Robert Arnott

Chapter 2: Indus-Aegean Interaction in the 3rd millennium BC – Geoffrey E. Ludvik, J. Mark Kenoyer

Chapter 3: Junction Points: New Evidence for Long-Distance Trade between Minoan Crete and the East – Susan C. Ferrence, Alessandra Giumlia-Mair, Philip P. Betancourt, Metaxia Tsipopoulou

Chapter 4: Fierce Femmes: On the Syncretic Nature of the Bronze Age Divine in Afro-Eurasia – Marie N. Pareja

Chapter 5: The Iconography of Game Animals in Afro-Eurasia and Disease – Amanda N. Porter

Chapter 6: The ancient views of India and Ethiopia as evidence for intercultural contacts between Bronze Age India and the Mediterranean – Asterios-Evangelos Kechagias

Chapter 7: Ḫumbaba the elephant? On eastern elements in the Standard Babylonian Gilgameš epic – Sureshkumar Muthukumaran

Chapter 8: Babylonia abroad in the Kassite period – Tim Clayden

Chapter 9: Relations between the Indus and the Aegean in the Bronze Age: Assessing the limited
linguistic evidence – Stephen P. B. Durnford

• Edited by Marie Nicole Pareja
• Edited by Robert Arnott